Into the Darkness
by Dezeron
Summary: We all know how it happened. Sora and Riku defeated Xemnas, stranding them in the Realm of Darkness, where a portal opens up and leads them home. But what if Sora decided that he needed to stay behind to prevent anyone else from attempting to abuse the dark power lying within this realm? And what if he encountered another keyblade wielder who was stuck there?
1. Chapter 1

It was over. They finally did it. Sora and Riku had finally defeated Organization XIII and their leader, Xemnas. It took them so long, but it all payed off in the end. The threat was over. Unfortunately, their victory hadn't come without sacrifices. During their battle with the organization's leader, it seems he had transported them to a space between worlds, a place of nothingness. After Xemnas and the nobodies that followed were defeated, the two pressed on, with Sora having to help steady Riku due to a wound that Xemnas inflicted on him. After a little time, they came across a strange light that enveloped the duo.

When the blinding glow cleared, they saw a beach, devoid of alllife, and entirely lit by moon light. It only took a second of looking around to guess where they were. It was the realm of darkness. This wasn't a world like what they had been traveling during their journeys. Those were all a small part of of the realm of light. This was another realm entirely. And from the looks of things, there was only one world in this domain.

They both sat near the water, waiting for a time, when Riku noticed a bottle at the shore. He picked it up, and pulled the note that was inside out. He read it for a second before getting Sora's attention.

"I think it's for you." Was all Riku said. And so Sora began to read.

_Thinking of you wherever you are.  
_

_"We pray for our sorrows to end,_

_And hope that our hearts will blend._

_Now I will step forward to realize this wish._

_And who knows:_

_Starting a new journey may not be so hard._

_Or maybe it has already begun._

_There are many worlds._

_But they all share the same sky-_

_One sky, one destiny._

_Kairi_

Upon finishing the letter, a column of light rose from the water, much to the shock of both Sora and Riku.

"Light." Was all Riku said.

"The door to light." Sora agreed. Though it was unspoken, they both knew where the door lead. It was their road home. The wielder of light was ecstatic. They could go home. Finally! It had been so long! He would finally be able to talk to Kairi without the worry of some evil destroying all the worlds!

At least, that's what he _should _be thinking. And yet... Some part of him was worried about the danger this realm presented. What if someone managed to successfully open a way into this world, with all this power left unchecked? He had to keep the danger here at bay so no one could ever tap into the power that lay here.

But first, hehad to make sure that Riku left. He more than anyone else was susceptible to the darkness that lay here. To mask his intentions, he jumped to his feet, offering his hand to the former wielder of darkness.

"We'll go together." Sora lied. Riku, not seeing through the ruse, smiled and took his hand, and let himself be pulled and they walked. When they were but a few feet from the portal leading home, Sora stepped back and shoved Riku forward, watching as the light enveloped him, and then he was gone.

It was just Sora, now. The door was still open, and he could go home if he wanted. He thought about Roxas, to whom he made a promise to stay with Kairi as much as they could, so that he and Namine wouldn't be apart.

_It's alright. I understand._ He heard echo across his mind. He knew in his heart that it was Roxas. The door began to flicker, shrinking a little, as though asking if he was coming.

"Sorry, Kairi, but it looks like I won't be making it home. Take care of her and the others, Riku." He said. As he finished, a keyhole appeared in front of the road home. He summoned his keyblade, and he locked it, causing his only known route to his home to disappear. He smiled, knowing that his friends were safe. It was his job to keep the heartless from leaving this world, and he would uphold it as best as he knew how. Having steeled his resolve, he turned his back to the beach, and walked further into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

After Sora left the beach, the first thing that he noticed about this world was how easy it was to see. Every direction he looked eventually led to pitch black, yet he was still able to see perfectly fine. So why then was he able to see? It went against everything he'd learned, but he figured with time he'd adjust.

The paths in the Realm of Darkness were very twisted and chaotic, with no pattern or structure. It seemed that the paths also defied physics, as the paths were all narrow and hung suspended, like someone had frozen them in midair, never allowing them to fall. Also, it might've just been his imagination, but whenever he fought he felt more fatigued than he should've been, like he'd fought two or three times more heartless than he actually had.

Conveniently, this lead to the third thing that the keyblade wielder noticed. As bad as the heartless were in the Realm of Light, they were even worse here. They were everywhere, which made sense seeing as this was their home turf. Even was was that they fought more ferociously here more than they ever did in his realm. Even Shadows weren't a threat to be taken lightly, and they were the weakest kind! If it wasn't for his spells and enormous stock of healing items, he was sure he'd be a goner by now.

Actually, that's another thing. Where did all of these chests come from? He'd been finding these chests everywhere with all kinds items such as healing items and some scriptures on how to do moves he'd never thought of. He'd have to look into that later.

After he'd walked for a while, defeating heartless along the way, he found himself in a huge, circular area with a couple of paths branching off to the left and right. He felt a few presences to his right, prompting the teenage to summon the Kingdom Key. He moved into his crouching position he typically used in battles, and got ready to fight. There were a couple Neo Shadows and an Invisible. The last time he'd seen the sword-wielding heartless was in the world where he had confronted Xehanort's heartless, Ansem. These were probably much stronger than the others as well.

He got ready to dash at the heartless when a chill went down his spine. It wasn't just these three nearby. He looked around, and was realized that he was surrounded by heartless. And none of them were weaker heartless. There were even a couple of orange Invisibles, which were probably more powerful than the ones he had seen previously. The sight caused him to falter for just a second. A second was all they needed.

A Neo Shadow jumped from the black, yellow-spotted ring and clawed at Sora's back. Caught off guard, the keyblade wielder gasped in pain before recuperating and slashing back at the Neoshadow. He slashed again at the enemy in front of him, destroying it in a puff of smoke. The only convenient part about this fight was that it was unusual for heartless to fight one person up to three or four at a time in large groups. If he had to guess, it was probably so that they wouldn't get in the way of each other while fighting.

Three more heartless advanced, prompting Sora to lunge at the one in the middle before spinning with his keyblade outstretched, knocking them on their feet. He created a small explosion on the ground, lifting the heartless and himself into the air, where he hacked and slashed at the enemies, causing them to dissipate as the Neoshadow from earlier had. As tough as the heartless in this realm were, it seems that they weren't any better at dodging.

It was during battles like these that his mind just kinda went on auto-pilot, and when the battle was over, he usually couldn't remember anything of the battle he'd just fought. One of the biggest examples he could think of was his battle with the one thousand heartless in Radiant Garden. The big difference here being that there seemed to be even more heartless than that.

The fighting continued like this for a long time, with Sora using his whole slew of moves in his wide range of attacks, and using his magic to take care of enemies who put him in awkward fighting positions and to heal when he couldn't get his potions out in time. Fatigue was beginning to set in on the young teenager, which was starting to become apparent in his movements. It was probably the accelerated weariness that this realm was exerting. He could have sworn he heard heartless being slain somewhere in the distance, but he had no time to think about it. He was running out of energy, and fast.

Calling upon his last reserves of strength, he used the series that he had developed in the underworld in Hercules' world. He wouldn't be able to perform trinity, which typically followed these slashes, as he was by himself, but the slashes by themselves were very devastating. His attacks did put a sizable dent in their numbers, but for every one he destroyed, there was another who eagerly took its place. As Sora finished his long series of lunges and strikes, he saw what little effect his attacks were having. He would have to perform trinity by himself.

The teenager held his keyblade up, pouring all of his remaining energy into a sphere of light in front of him. It was feeble in comparison to the other times he's performed it. His heart sank. It looked like it was the end for him. He had one job for himself, and he blew it. He was about to release the energy when he felt someone or something run up and begin to pour energy into the sphere of pure light. It swelled, becoming huge, and almost blinding, causing him to be unable to see who was helping him.

The heartless were closing in. With no time left, the duo overflowed trinity, forcing the mass of light to explode, wiping out all the heartless in the area. The adrenaline that had been helping Sora stay awake up to this point finally failed him, causing him to fall onto his back. His vision became incredibly blurry. He saw a figure who appeared to be garbed mostly in blue kneel beside him, and then all went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Aqua had wandered the twisting structures of the realm of darkness for… a while, she knew that much. With no one to talk to, and no way of tracking time, she had no way of knowing. But in all of the time that she had wandered here, she never forgot the one thing that kept her from completely forgetting herself and fading to the dark. Her friends. Her family. Her power. Terra and Ventus. With Master Eraqus gone, and the world that she had grown up in gone, they were all that she had left… and they were all but gone as that was what drove her forward. To save them. _That _was what propelled her forward. It was her one link to the light left.

Aqua sat down near the top of a cliff. It looked too eerily familiar for her own liking, but such was the way in the realm of darkness. The land was broken, and weaved itself like a spirograph, so it was easy to accidentally wind up where you had already been. And boy, was it depressing. It essentially meant that you could only make so much progress before you began slowing down to a crawl

A couple of the creatures she called the Shadows appeared next to her. Panicked, she scrambled back and summoned her keyblade, and sliced both of them in half, causing them to dissipate. That was when she heard some noise. With her weapon in hand, the master made her way over to where the source of the sound was coming from, the edge of the cliff. When she looked down, her eyes widened at what she saw. There was a mass of heartless the likes of which she had never seen before. The keyblade wielder was about to run, when she noticed something. There someone at the center of the mass, killing the heartless!

_'What's someone _else _doing here?!' _The blue-haired woman thought. Without a second thought, she raised her former master's keyblade and jumped into the mass. She began casting spells left and right, trying desperately to reach the new arrival before the Shadows got to him.

A sword-wielding heartless went to slash at her, but being a keyblade master, Aqua saw it, ducked underneath the swing, and stabbed Shadow in the chest, making it disappear. A ball-shaped one tried to ram her, but she side-stepped it, and blasted it out of existence with a bolt of lightning. She lashed out at three more, burned another, froze one and smashed it to pieces, sliced two in half, all the while making sure to always keep moving._ Left, stab, forward, fire, jump, dash, attack, dodge, block, thundaga,_ on and on the attacks went on. Eventually, when Aqua was almost there, she saw a dim light shining over the crowd of heartless. Her eyes widened.

_'Trinity! But that's a technique known only to keyblade wielders, and Terra's gone… Ven?! Hold on, I'm coming! Just hang in there!' _Aqua doubled her efforts, attacking with more vigor than ever, in a desperate rush to reach the one that she desperately hoped was her friend. Eventually, just as the boy's light began to dim, she managed to cross her keyblade with his and poured her power into the attack, causing the ball to grow brighter and brighter, until she had to close her eyes.

When Aqua opened her eyes, all the heartless were gone, and all that was left was just her and the person that she had saved.

"Are you okay?" She asked. The boy didn't say anything, and just as she was about to ask what was wrong, he fell down flat on his back, his keyblade disappearing. She got a good look at the person she had just saved. He was a young boy, no more than sixteen years old, and wore a dark outfit with several straps across it. She couldn't place it, but this boy looked familiar to Aqua. But where did she…? She shook her head. She had been here for far too long. With a long sigh, she picked the boy up, and began carrying him piggy-back style. Who was he? How did he get here?

'_The Shadows will be here soon. I'll have time for questions later. For now, I need to get this boy to safety!' _And with that thought, Aqua began walking down one of the branching paths to find somewhere safe for her and the young boy… if such a place could be found in this realm.


End file.
